Friday, December 12, 2014

UNO Press Releases "Talk That Music Talk"

The University of New Orleans Press, together with The New Orleans Jazz National Historical
Park, the Neighborhood Story Project, and the Louisiana State Museum, proudly announces
release of a new book on brass band music in New Orleans.

Join Us!

The UNO Press invites you to a reception to celebrate the release of Talk that Music Talk: Passing on Brass Band Music in New Orleans.

Join us from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at the Louisiana State Museum, located
in the old U.S. Mint building at 400 Esplanade Ave.

Talk that Music Talk: Passing on Brass Band Music in New Orleans The Traditional Way is a 312-page documentary of the history of brass band education in New Orleans and
the long-running Music for All Ages program operated by the New Orleans Jazz Historical
Park. The book weaves together in-depth interviews, formal portraiture, contemporary
documentary photography and archival images, to tell the story of New Orleans' enduring
brass band music.

The hardcover book portrays brass band music "as community organizing, as resistance
to Jim Crow, as a way to make a living, and as a way to move more richly through a
life," authors said in a release.

The $35 book, which hits shelves next week on Monday, Dec. 15, includes words and
music by the Tremé, New Wave, Original Royal Players, Storyville Stompers, New Orleans
Young Traditional Brass Band, and All Around Brass Band with the Black Men of Labor
Social Aid and Pleasure Club. It is written by Rachel Breunlin, ethnographer-in-residence
in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Orleans, and Bruce "Sunpie"
Barnes a veteran park ranger and photographer at New Orleans Jazz National Historical
Park.

"UNO Press is very excited to celebrate the release of Talk that Music Talk next Wednesday at the Mint," said Abram Himelstein, director of the UNO Press, who
invited the community to the two-hour reception at the Louisiana State Museum, U.S.
Mint, on Esplanade Avenue.

Breunlin teaches courses on public culture and collaborative ethnography in the UNO
Anthropology Department and is co-director of the Neighborhood Story Project, a nationally
renowned book making project founded in 2004 that taps New Orleans residents to help
collect stories and make books based in the neighborhoods where we live and work.

As a musician, Sunpie has traveled the world playing with his band, Sunpie and the
Louisiana Sunspots, as well as others, such as Paul Simon and Sting. He runs the Music
for All Ages program at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and when he
asked Breunlin to help him document, neither had an idea of the project's scope.

"What was originally intended to be a booklet to accompany recordings grew into 312-page
documentary in its own right, as Barnes and Breunlin collaborated to document the
history of brass band education in New Orleans, and the Music For All Ages program,"
the authors said in a release. "Barnes and Breunlin set up writing workshops and photo
shoots at the Neighborhood Story Project office, and older musicians and players-in-training
held conversations relating to life-history, the importance of the music to the fabric
of a city, and ways that musical training and life-lessons are interwoven."

The hardcover book filled with beautiful and compelling professional photography begins
with the story of the Black Men of Labor Social Aid and Pleasure Club, which was formed
after Danny Barker's brass band funeral, authors said.

"As Black Men of Labor grew over the years, they wanted to honor Barker by helping
to pass down the musical traditions he had worked to preserve. In collaboration with
Barnes, Black Men of Labor helped sponsor Music for All Ages," the authors said.

"This program paired young musicians with legendary traditional brass bands—the Tremé,
the Original Royal Players, the Storyville Stompers, and the New Wave—to learn to
perform the music and uphold the etiquette of parading culture. These young musicians
have since gone on to form and play in some of the most popular brass and jazz bands
in the city."